Quick study guide 17
Writing a critical review

What is a critical review?
A critical review requires you to evaluate an academic text eg: an article, report, essay or book. You are asked to make judgements, positive or negative, about the text using various criteria. The information and knowledge in the text needs to be evaluated, and the criteria that should be used can vary depending on your discipline. That is, management, sociology, information technology, or literature may use different criteria. All critical reviews, however, involve two main tasks: summary and evaluation. Read your assignment instructions carefully to find out what proportion is required for each, and whether these should be presented as separate sections or as a combined text.
Summary / Description: Evaluation / Judgement / Critique:

Process of writing a review:
1. Skim read the text – note the main question or questions the text tries to answer and the main answers it gives.
2. Think of evaluation criteria. Talk about the text and criteria with classmates.
3. Read the text again and note the important points in detail such as the subject, question, arguments and/or evidence, and conclusions made, and your evaluation using your criteria.
4. Read related texts, note differences or similarities and explain these.
5. Outline critical review, matching points of description with evaluation criteria.
6. Start writing review.

Structure of a critical review

Sources:
Coyle, J. 2000, ‘John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do’, Human Resource Planning, vol. 23, no. 1, p.45.
Gibson, JW 1999, ‘John Kotter on What Leaders Really Do’, Organizational Dynamics, vol. 28, no. 2, p.90.